Berger and Fry
by Romantic Twist
Summary: Seeking to clear his name before his court hearing, Dr Berger asks Bertha Fry if he can appear on her TV show. Story also features the Lost Ones .


One day soon after the visit to the Graveyard of Fools, Mark, Dan, Steve, Betty and Valerie were relaxing at the Spindrift base camp, after a long but successful food gathering expedition Barry and Fitzhugh were still out looking, and hadn't reported in.

Suddenly they heard giant footsteps.

"Giant!" said Dan.

"Everyone take cover, not in the ship in case it's found!" said Steve, worried that a giant had gotten this close.

They all concealed themselves under bushes, but Mark Wilson soon stepped out. The giant was Andre, the former laboratory assistant of Dr Berger, who had tried to have Andre arrested by Inspector Kobick for consorting with Little People. Andre had falsely accused Berger, pretending not to know that Kobick was nearby listening. Kobick had exonerated Andre and laid formal charges against Berger.

"Hi Mark. I thought backtracking my movements when we were all under the influence of the Delta Device might lead me here to find and help you again," said Andre, "I don't work for Berger anymore. His court date's coming up, and he wouldn't keep me on after I set him up. I've got my own laboratory practice now. I took over from Zoral, who had inherited a lab from Gorn after the Mechanical Man accident. Zoral retired after the attack on him by that renegade SID Sergeant who framed you. With Berger no longer breathing down my neck, I think I can help you iron out the bugs in the Delta Device, so that it will run safely and get your ship back to earth."

Steve stepped out into view and the others followed.

"I'm sorry I didn't trust you last time at our campsite," he said, "It was an old rule of mine, that indirectly got us in a lot of trouble, you included."

"It's alright, Captain. In your position, I'd be very cautious too," said Andre, "But I've brought a modified prototype of the device. I can supervise the installation, if some of you would like to fit it."

"I just wish we could give you something in return," said Dan.

"Maybe you can," said Andre, "Before I met you, Dr Berger and I were commissioned by the SID to build devices to detect a rare metal called Enella metal. I'd never heard of it, but later learned it was only found on earth. I'd never have helped if I'd known. I heard Kobick telling Dr Berger that he needed as many working models as possible for a huge manhunt to tie down a man who'd been surgically advantaged by Enella metal surgery. At that point, when I learned the detectors were for capturing little people, I wished I'd never worked on them. That's why I was so keen to help you last time. It's my penance," said Andre.

"You don't need to do penance," said Valerie, "You were used by Kobick. He does that."

"Thank you, but I now know you must have gotten rid of all the stuff, and the SID stopped commissioning detectors shortly after that business. I'd like to have your supplies to study under a microscope, if you'd be willing to tell me where you hid them," said Andre.

"It's yours," said Steve, "Dan, you and Valerie go and dig it up for Andre and bring it back."

"Sure," said Valerie, "Never thought I'd be giving my old jewellery to such a gracious giant man."

"Good," said Steve, chuckling, "Mark, I'll help you and Andre with the Delta installation and tests. Betty, can you go and try to find Fitzhugh and Barry on the regular trails? Find out why they turned off the radio too."

Dr Berger was desperate for any help he could get to substantiate his innocence in the charges Kobick had placed on him. He had actually been trying to assist the SID. Kobick had even gone so far as to accuse Berger of designing faulty Enella metal detectors to aid in Dan Erickson's escape from detection, during the time of his covert surgery.

Berger had recently seen a lot of news and heard a lot of radio reports by a journalist who had berated the little people. Her name was Bertha Fry. The woman was 34, beautiful and headstrong. She had all the qualities of determination and single mindedness that he needed for an ally at this time.

He contacted her and asked if he could see her in person.

Bertha agreed.

"I am in serious trouble, since my former assistant framed me for assisting little people. Inspector Kobick has pressed formal charges, and my court date is coming up. If I could at least tell my side on your show first, it might help the jury see things my way."

"You want me to get you a verdict by media?" asked Bertha, "I couldn't do that. It would unethically contaminate the jury pool and bring the SID down on me. I have some rapport with Lt Grayson after the curare dart affair, but Kobick doesn't like my volt face response to the little people. I led a crusade against their Mark Wilson for murder, only to find out that he was innocent, framed by an SID officer. I'm sorry, Doctor. You'll have to do your own work on this one."

"If I could only catch some little people and hand them over to the SID with full media coverage, I might convince both Bertha and Kobick," thought Berger, "But that group will never let me find them now."

He was right about that.

Now that Andre knew their location, he offered to move the ship to a more secluded spot, and one that better enabled him to peek into the Spindrift and guide Mark's work on the Delta device.

Steve thought it a good idea, especially since Kobick and Berger may mimic Andre's idea of searching the familiar spot and locate their old camp site. Steve radioed the others of the ship's movements, so that they'd be able to find the new camp. Fitzhugh still didn't respond with Barry. Betty, Dan and Valerie all understood and accepted Steve's message.

Fitzhugh and Barry stopped just outside the estate of the evil chess fanatic Kronig. There were no guards now. The man had dismissed them, after the earthlings had escaped. Dr Lalor had refused to be his physician, after he had refused to stop using little people in his deadly chess game.

"Why are we here, Mr Fitzhugh?" asked Barry.

"When I think what that man did to us," said Fitzhugh, "He had us all randomly at risk of dying in a furnace for his own amusement, playing chess with every square doubling as a trapdoor. He was a sore loser, a cheat, a liar and the most evil homicidal sick maniac of all the giants we've ever encountered. I've brought a curare dart, which I intend to use on him. His army of security men has left. He won't do that stuff to any of us or any other earthlings again."

"But you were angry at Mark, when you thought he'd used the curare darts."

"I shot my mouth off, because I thought he'd brought the SID down on us, and Bertha Fry too. Now that I've had time to consider the matter more thoughtfully, I think Mark had the right idea. We should finish off the worst of these giants before they get us."

"It wasn't Mark's idea to kill," said Barry.

"Not SID Acting Inspector Swan, but he did try to kill the boy with the war toys. You told me yourself. You were there. He admitted it," said Fitzhugh.

"But he didn't go through with it. And he's probably very glad of that. He was just reacting to something in his past on earth: the death of a friend. Mark wouldn't want you to kill Kronig."

"He forced you to gamble our lives on every move you made in that game, and sneered at me, saying 'It's my move, your majesty', while he sat over us safe from the horrific death he risked bringing on us. He expected you to think out complex chess moves with all our lives hanging over your head. He's the most evil schweizkopf!"

It was the first time Barry had heard his friend lose his temper in German.

"I wouldn't want you to kill him for my benefit," said Barry, "When you first came aboard Spindrift, you let me believe you were a naval commander. The last James Bond movie before we left was in 1981, called 'For Your Eyes Only'. James Bond was a naval commander too. In that movie, there was a woman who wanted to kill her parents' murderer. James Bond told her that the Chinese have a saying: Before setting out on revenge, you must first dig two graves. I think I understand what he meant. This will only destroy you as well, Mr Fitzhugh. You're my friend. I don't want you obsessing over murdering anyone, not even a giant."

"He threw us all in the furnace anyway. If Steve hadn't knocked out its power and cut us out with the laser, we'd all have been fried. I'm going to kill Kronig, boy. You're going to stand look out."

"I can't do that, Mr Fitzhugh."

"Suit yourself," said Fitzhugh, "I'm on my way in."

Dr Berger had no luck locating the Spindrift crew. He walked deeper and deeper into the forest in his desperate hunt for little people. After an exhaustive trek, he came across four that he'd never seen before. They were all boys in their late teens. Berger snatched all of them up, and put them in his pockets, and headed back to Bertha Fry's office at the news station.

Nick, Joey, Hopper and Dolf were convinced that their hour had come.

"Maybe we'd have been better throwing in our lot with Captain Burton," said Hopper, who was in the same pocket as Nick, "His group turned out to be pretty nice in the end."

"I had Burton's number though," said Nick, "He was a leader type who wouldn't have given that up. I know, because I'm that type too, and you all heard me tell him that each group only had room for one top dog."

Betty walked further and further looking for Barry and Fitzhugh, but had no luck in finding them for a long time.

Finally she found an excited Barry running towards her.

"Barry, honey what's wrong?" 

He spoke frantically to the woman who had always seemed to want to be his big sister, when he'd begun to hope for more.

"It's Mr Fitzhugh. He's gone to kill that chess player, the one who tried to fry us in the furnace. I tried to talk him out of it, but he's hated the guy for a long time. He must have had nightmares about it, and kept it to himself, until he brought me here this morning and said he was going to get him with a curare dart."

"Where is he now?"

"On his way to sneak into the house, when I left. He's probably looking for Kronig."

"It's too late to call the others," said Betty, "If he's already gone in, we'll have to run in after him. I'll try to talk him out of it. Show me where. I was back at the ship when that chess situation happened. I never knew the way in."

Barry led Betty towards the property, across the lawn, in the direction he'd seen Fitzhugh going, and into the house's vent. They could see no sign of Fitzhugh, and ran for a while, until they came to a room and saw a startling scene. Kronig was sitting on an armchair facing them. Fitzhugh had snuck around the room behind him, and was approaching his ankle from behind, under the chair, with the dart poised for action.

Barry was about to call out to him not to do it. Sensing this, Betty put her hands over his mouth.

"He'll be caught!" said Betty, "Us too, if we're unlucky. Kronig's reading, looking down at his book. He doesn't see any of us. I'll try signalling Fitzhugh."

She waved him in semaphore to come back to them. Fitzhugh ignored her and plunged the dart in.

Kronig staggered over onto the floor, as Fitzhugh began to run. Kronig reached out, and flicked a finger at Fitzhugh, tripping him up.

"You stabbed me, you inferior little person!" he called, "You'll pay for that!"

It was the worst thing Barry had seen, since the spider had taken Major Kagen's life in the drain near the science building.

Kronig brought his fist down instantly on Fitzhugh, who died from the blow without having time to sense or feel any pain. Kronig saw them in the vent and struggled to crawl towards them. He barely moved a few giant inches, before he too breathed his last.

Barry broke free from Betty's attempts to restrain him, and ran out to examine Fitzhugh for any signs of life. Betty ran out after him.

Fitzhugh's body had been flattened like an insect's. Betty led him away into the forest. He had been silent for a long time. Betty didn't know what to say. This was the second time Barry had lost someone he'd befriended and looked up to, and Betty had been nearby to witness the boy's tragedy when Major Kagen died too. Suddenly the boy burst into tears.

"I tried to warn him about the two graves," sobbed Barry.

"What graves?" asked Betty.

"The Chinese saying. Before setting out on revenge, dig two graves. Naval Commander James Bond used that saying in the last movie. I appealed to Mr Fitzhugh as someone who introduced himself to me as a naval commander. He wouldn't listen."

She hugged him and held his cheek against hers.

"We'll all miss him, Barry. He shouldn't have done it, but in a way, he felt he was saving us from another Kronig attack, I guess."

"He was my friend."

"I'm your friend too," said Betty.

They sat and hugged for a long time.

"I try to think of you as a friend, but you're a girl."

"What's wrong with that?"

"You're a nice girl."

"Better still, surely," said Betty, "You're a nice boy."

"But being friends is not the same as being like Mark and Valerie have been lately."

Barry was so sweet and fast maturing into a boy ahead of his years. She admired the way he had appealed to Fitzhugh with the Bond movie quote, and tried all he could to discourage the killing. She asked herself if she was just feeling sympathy for Barry at this time, but then realised that she too had been developing feelings. There would be limitations. They couldn't marry and do certain things until he came of age, but they couldn't exactly set up house and home until they got back to earth anyway.

"Couldn't we be both?" asked Betty.

"What would Steve say?"

"I don't really think it's any business of the others. I did see you as a cute child two years ago, but you've grown so much since then. I like you too Barry."

She kissed his cheek. Barry returned the affection. He'd had dreams of her as a giantess returning his love many times, but this was real and possible and wonderful.

She guided his face into the right position and kissed the boy on the mouth. Barry was still deeply upset by Mr Fitzhugh's death, but acknowledged that something good had come out of it.

"We'd better get back to camp," said Betty at last.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\

Dr Berger took the earthlings to Bertha Fry and asked if she would exhibit them on her next show, with Berger interviewed as their captor stating his plans to hand all four of them over to Inspector Kobick the next day.

"I'll clear a spot on tonight's program. You'll be up first," said Bertha, "I've got a cage ready for them. You can't appear on television like that though. How much mud did you tromp through in your search?"

"Lots. There isn't any in the area where I thought I found the other little group's encampment. I'll go home, shower and change clothes and be back here in two hours to go over the interview questions with you. Keep the little ones under lock and key."

Steve and Mark and Andre had finished installing the Delta device, and found that the tests worked with no radiation leakage, no overloading, no hallucinations or nightmare effects.

"We've done it!" said Mark, not usually one to be so demonstrative, "Thanks to you, we can get back to earth, Andre."

"What's this I hear?" called Dan, as he and Valerie appeared with the sack, "Sorry we took so long. It took a while to find our way to the new spot. Here's your metal, Andre."

"Thanks Dan. Your ship is good to go."

"Wow!" said Valerie, "You're all too much."

They began packing everything from the lean to for the ship.

"I'd better take my metal and go," said Andre, "My size draws too much conspicuous attention to your location, especially when I was once suspected of helping you. I don't think Kobick would buy another ruse."

"I hope the metal helps your researches enormously," said Mark, "And thank you, Andre."

Their giant scientist friend left, and the others finished the packing, and hoped to hear from Betty and Barry and Fitzhugh soon.

A despondent Betty and Barry later wandered into the camp.

"What's wrong?" asked Steve.

"Mr Fitzhugh died this morning," said Barry.

"You go inside and have a drink, honey. I'll explain," said Betty.

Barry went indoors and drank some water and lay down across two of the passenger seats, with his legs hanging off the end.

Betty filled them in.

"He took it very hard," she said.

"He was bound to get himself in trouble we couldn't fix eventually," said Dan.

"I feel like I led him down that path, after what Barry told you on your way back here," said Mark, "I did think vindictively towards that war toys kid, when I tried to blow up his battery."

"Don't flog yourself. I instigated the explosions that killed Captain Hasham and his officer, and the scientist who invented the night vision goggles, and Logar and Franzen. We've had to take drastic steps to protect ourselves. I wouldn't have encouraged Fitzhugh in this, but I did set the worst precedents," said Steve, "The most we can do now is look after Barry. His nightmares of this world won't end when we get him back to earth. At least we're in a position to do that now. The ship's charging up even as we speak."

"Well my little friends, we'd better get you out of here," said Bertha.

"You're letting us go?" asked Nick.

"It's the least I can do for the little people. I led a furious crusade against Captain Burton's party, blaming Mark Wilson for the death of Acting Inspector Swan recently. He was actually framed by a Sergeant in the very SID building where I was pushing my campaign for action against you little people. I was so wrong about them. I can tell Berger that the other little people came and rescued you with advanced devices, and I was helpless to resist."

"I had my own meeting with Captain Burton's team too. I also suspected him of treachery," said Nick, "We fought like two wild animals, but straightened it out in the end and went our separate ways, after he put his crew on the line to get us away from a giant trapper. I guess you and I are two of a kind, Miss Fry."

"Call me Bertha," she said, "Do you have anywhere to stay?"

"We've grown used to roughing it in the forest," said Hopper.

"Would you like to stay at my place?" she said, "I can get you the basic comforts, and I've got enough rooms to give you privacy. This job pays well."

"Do we trust her?" asked Dolf.

"Oh come on," said Nick, "If she wanted to do the dirty on us, she's already got us. She's lettin' us go and offering a roof over our heads. No more scrounging around in the forest running from animals. I say we take it. You're free to go find Burton's gang if you want."

Bertha Fry hid the little people in the glove box of her car, told the returning Dr Berger that they had escaped, and that she'd have to run with her original stories. He was furious, but was already facing trial as a witness that Kobick had long since discredited. She knew from the rationale that Grayson had once used on her, that there was no point in Berger pointing the finger at her.

Spindrift launched that night, and made it through the space warp and back to earth. Betty gave Barry Fitzhugh's stolen million dollars.

"He did will it to you, when you had appendicitis, remember. I was there as your nurse," said Betty, "He'd want you to take it."

"It's not mine. The most I can rightfully claim is the reward money. I can look after you with that though."

"You're thinking of me!" she said, and kissed him again.

Mark and Dan walked in on the passionate scene, looked askance and thought it wisest to leave them to it. There was plenty more going on at London Airport that night anyway.

"I always thought it would be Steve and Betty," said Dan.

"Steve wasn't so keen to be a lover as a leader," said Mark, "In the end he even surpassed me on that. When Val and I found each other, I was content to leave Steve to the hot seat. Barry's always liked Betty. I plot charts. That makes me a good silent observer."

Dr Berger's case was ultimately dismissed, as neither he nor Kobick had any evidence to substantiate their claims. Berger was warned of the strictest consequences, should he be caught assisting little people. Kobick asked one of his plainclothes men to watch the doctor from then on. As an afterthought, he decided to have Andre watched as well.

However, the young scientist was never caught with little people. Nor would he be, and to the untrained observer, his Enella metal experiments aroused no suspicion at all.

The Spindrift team settled down to a pleasant life on earth. Steve and Dan returned to safer piloting flight paths. Mark and Valerie married. Barry and Betty continued to see each other, hiding their true relationship from the general public by masking it as Betty having adopted Barry. They slept in separate rooms, but often lay awake cuddling and kissing in the same bed during evenings and weekends.

Barry claimed the reward money on the stolen million dollars, and put it in his own bank account for his future with Betty.

The six survivors, and Chipper the dog, arranged and held their own private memorial service for Alexander B Fitzhugh, sharing many old anecdotes about their time with him again.

"I hear you're a bit more than a foster son to Betty," said Valerie to Barry in privacy, while the others enjoyed the wake.

"I liked you both, Miss, but Betty's special, and I'm happy for you and Mark too."

"Good for you, kid," said Valerie, and kissed his cheek.

Bertha Fry showed the four lost boys to a room in her house, and then asked if she could speak to their leader in private.

Nick agreed, and she took him into her bedroom.

"It's good of you to put us up like this," said Nick.

"I get the feeling you're usually a hard leader with your team," said Bertha, "But you really fought for me back at the studio."

"I'm glad we can trust you," said Nick.

"Is that all it is? I gave you this place with no strings attached, but I do think you're rather cute, younger than most of Burton's team too. I'm really a bit of a Cougar at 34."

"I'm 18. The others are 17," said Nick, "And you're beautiful, chick."

"Chick!"

"Slang, or native expression where I come from. It means you're a gorgeous woman."

Bertha kissed Nick. It was sensational. In the days ahead the leader of the second party of little people began to mellow and soften.


End file.
